Brands pull the plug on Google ads

Video Transcript

Hello and welcome to Digital Minute, where we’re looking back at a tough week for Google and its advertisers.

Google’s advertising platforms have been in the news these past few days, and for all the wrong reasons.

Last week, the search engine was criticised after it’s Google Home assistant devices – essentially it’s answer to Amazon Echo – started promoting the release of Disney’s new Beauty and the Beast movie.

Google later insisted that this wasn’t a paid ad placement, but the recommendation to see the movie was removed shortly after the story came to light.

But that wasn’t the only problem facing Google this week, after a number of high profile advertisers announced that they would be pulling their ads from Google networks.

Brands including L’Oreal and The Guardian, as well as the UK government, have pulled campaigns after their ads appeared alongside ‘extremist’ content via the Google network.

Whilst advertisers do have some degree of control over where their ads appear, the function to do this is limited. Google has since pledged to address the issue.